NASA Clarifies New Public Affairs Policy

NASA's top officials rolled out a
new public affairs policy Thursday designed to ensure open communications
between its employees, scientists and the public.

NASA chief Michael Griffin and
deputy administrator Shana Dale discussed the new communications policy, which
the agency drew
up following allegations that a political appointee stifled a top
climatologist known for speaking out on global warming, during a televised
agency-wide update.

"The goal was to clarify our
commitment to scientific and technical openness," Dale said during the
discussion, which was broadcast to NASA centers via NASA TV.

The space agency's review of
its public affairs policies, which Dale said had not been updated since 1991,
came after a New York Timesreport
that former NASA press aide George Deutsch--a 24-year-old political appointee--played
a role in muzzling climatologist James Hansen,
who heads the Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York City.

Deutsch has since resigned, and claimed he
was targeted because of his political ties as a Bush administration appointee.

"The circumstance with Mr. Deutsch was
most unfortunate," Griffin
said. "We certainly hope it won't be repeated."

Griffin said that the new eight-page
policy is aimed not only at clarifying the roles and responsibilities of those
NASA scientists and engineers that produce technical information, but also lays
out how information is to be handled by public affairs officials, as well as an
appeals process to resolve concerns.

"It is important for our employees
within NASA to understand that they can appeal a decision by their management,"
Griffin said.
"There is a path for everyone to appeal a decision that he or she believes is
wrong, and there will be no retribution for appealing."

Griffin said that NASA employees are free
to grant interviews without a member of the agency's public affairs office
(PAO) staff present, but stressed the importance of coordination between the
two because of the risk of being misquoted or blind-sided by reporters.

"It's not an absolute requirement," Griffin said of
accompanied interviews. "I would just do what you want, but my advice is that if you're not a media professional,
stepping into an interview without a media professional present is courting
trouble."

According to the new policy,
scientists are free to communicate their scientific conclusions of their
research to the media, but any personal opinions or views beyond that must be
specifically labeled as such.

Griffin also stressed that the space agency
is a technical body that presents facts and not policy--which is what to do with
a set of facts--so employees should be clear to explain which statements are
personal opinions.

"We're not going to hang people," Griffin said about the
expression of personal opinions. "But we'd like people to realize the
difference between what are the facts, and what are
opinions."